— MAG —

Visual #3

It is a series of pure visual pleasure with meticulously selected contemporary artists for each issue. No repeats.

Olafur Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. Eliasson strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world.

Eliasson’s diverse works — in sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installations — have been exhibited widely throughout the world. Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice engages the broader public sphere through architectural projects and interventions in civic space.

Alicja Kwade

Option 1-2 / Glass 2 parts / 2011

Force / Granite, steel i-beam / 2015

Alicja Kwade’s mixed-media works manipulate mental perceptions and physical experiences of how the body inhabits space and time.

Hongjie Yang

The Synthesis Monolith, Bench / Aluminium / 2017

The Synthesis Monolith, Mirror / Aluminium and Bronze / 2016

Their appearance of being singularly formed objects is what makes these works seem so otherworldly. This outcome is central to the conceptual premise; to create a form that is at once organic and machined, as if a snake-like rock repeatedly shed its skin to create a newer, more refined version of itself over millennia.

This is the evolutionary arc conveyed across a single object; from primitive deep history to an imagined smoother, more elegant future context.The monumental nature of these works often causes a confusion about their purpose. They are heavy, industrial and yet much of their surface also appears organic in a way.

This collection operates within the realm of the fantastical and mystical. They are presenting a desire for a new relationship between the organic and the manufactured, between nature and humanity. A relationship that is symbiotic rather than forced. In this sense, the objects can be read metaphorically.

Katharina Grosse

Klaus Biesenbach, the chief curator of MoMa commissioned the piece entitled Rockaway! which developed into a statement on the relationship between the forces of nature and mankind. Katharina’s installation at Fort Tilden is part of MoMA’s PS1 program which provides funding to those affected by Hurricane Sandy. With the trees, sand and home all covered with violent slashes of color, Katharina’s work speaks to life after ravage. →

‘I wanted a very artificial color in relationship to the nature, the water, and the sand. Red felt the most visual and hostile.’

Patrick Hill

Patrick Hill’s sculptures appear to violate the elementary laws of physics by employing architectural materials in the service of constructing irrational structures. His heavy objects rest upon glass; what should be horizontal becomes vertical, and vice versa; giant slabs project in odd cantilevers. At once intuitively constructed and precisely engineered, each piece’s completion is a feat of daredevil finesse. →

Biter (Chain of Love) / Wood, glass, concrete, steel, ink, epoxy / 2009

Zaid Yousef

Zaid Yousef’s work challenges the engagement of form, material and process. His sculptures, installations and wall works are manifestations of materials extracted from nature, as well as fabricated industrial propositions that possess strong emphasis on minimalism and abstraction.

The composition of his work represent platforms for inquiry and problem solving that ultimately reciprocate in the transaction of temporal materials into case studies. He fuses concepts of archeology, geology and geography to examine existing systems of information and how it can be manipulated, translated and visually represented.

Doug Aitken

Play Video

Widely known for his innovative fine art installations, Doug Aitken is at the frontier of 21st century communication. Utilizing a wide array of artistic approaches, Aitken’s eye leads us into a world where time, space, and memory are fluid concepts.